Denmark
Restricts Water-Contaminating Herbicide
(Beyond Pesticides, September 23, 2003) Denmark placed unprecedented
restrictions on the herbicide glyphosate, the active ingredient in RoundUp,
as of September 15, 2003. The government action resulted from testing
which showed the presence of the toxic chemical in Denmark's groundwater,
where most of the country's drinking water comes from. The Denmark and
Greenland Geological Research Institution (DGGRI) had found glyphosate
sieving down through soil after applications, where it polluted groundwater
at a rate of five times more than the level allowed for drinking water.

"When we spray
glyphosate on the fields by the rules, it has been shown that it is
washed down into the upper groundwater with a concentration of 0.54
micrograms per litre. This is very surprising, because we had previously
believed that bacteria in the soil broke down the glyphosate before
it reached the ground water," says DGGRI. Glyphosate had also been
found earlier in wells in Roskilde and Storstroms regions as well as
the Copenhagen district council area. The U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) acknowledges that the material does have the potential
to contaminate surface waters. If glyphosate reaches surface water,
it is not broken down readily by water or sunlight. The half-life of
glyphosate in pond water ranges from 70 to 84 days.

When the chemical
was first detected in Denmark's groundwater, Professor Mogens Henze,
head of the Institute for Environment and Resources at Denmark's Technical
University, responded by stating, "The results show that glyphosate
is polluting our drinking water. And unfortunately we have only seen
the tip of the iceberg, because glyphosate and many other spray chemicals
are on their way through the soil at this point in time. Politicians
need to look at agriculture in relation to clean drinking water and
decide what it is they are going to do."

The new restrictions
specifically ban spraying of glyphosate on sites "where leaching
is extensive because of heavy rain." There are a number of exceptions
to the restrictions, which are subject to revision after an interim
consultation period. Still, Monsanto, Syngenta and other manufacturers
of the chemical issued complaints that the restrictions are "unacceptable"
for the producers or Danish farmers.

Statistics from
the Environment Ministry show that glyphosate use has doubled in Denmark
in the last five years. In 2001, 800 tons were used, which made up a
quarter of farmers' total use of pesticides. Use of the herbicide is
also widespread in the U.S. According to EPA's most recent data on pesticide
usage, glyphosate was the seventh most widely used active ingredient
in agriculture, with 34 to 38 million pounds used in 1997. In 1995/96,
glyphosate ranked as the second most used active ingredient in non-agricultural
settings, with five to seven million pounds used in the home and garden
and nine to twelve million pounds used in commercial settings.

Although glyphosate
use is widespread, there are many concerns regarding its health effects.
In fact, the most recent data (1998) from California's Department of
Pesticide Regulation finds that glyphosate ranks first among herbicides
as the highest causes of pesticide-induced illness or injury to people
in California. Symptoms following exposure to glyphosate formulations
include: swollen eyes, face and joints; facial numbness; burning and/or
itching skin; blisters; rapid heart rate; elevated blood pressure; chest
pains, congestion; coughing; headache; and nausea. It is also linked
to chronic health effects. A 1999 study, A Case-Control Study of Non-Hodgkin
Lymphoma and Exposure to Pesticides, (American Cancer Society, 1999),
found that people exposed to glyphosate are 2.7 times more likely to
contract non-Hodgkin Lymphoma.